Hmm I'd like to see either Quickstep, Rabobank or Astana.
With a limited peleton though, would Caisse not be a better choice than Euskaltel, as they have a much wider range of riders they could realistically have? Euskaltel are nice though too, up too you
The profile of stage 6 in the game is not the same as in reality. The circuit, which had 2 laps in real life after arriving form Oberriet, has 6 laps in the game. The small hill is too far from the finish, so I expect a mass sprint or a break to win, no favourite’s terrain today.
Two laps completed and a group of three riders have established in front: Tom Boonen (HTC), Grega Bole (Lampre) and Janez Brajkovic (Radioshack). They had 5‘ 25’’ on the peloton at that point.
The fight for the mountain points is hot in the pack every climb, with Kennaugh, Tondo, Van Leijen or Gesink attacking every time. It is weird, as there is only one point left for them. On the fourth climb Kennaugh wins the sprint, almost 7 minutes behind the break.
As the riders enter the last lap of the race, the break is three minutes ahead. It is going to be a tight fight between them and the pack.
An attack from Boonen is only followed by Brajkovic. The two men in the front have 20 seconds on Bole at the summit and 51 seconds on the peloton.
Mathias Frank didn’t only jump for the mountain points. He continues attacking on the descent and catches Bole easily, 1 minute in front of the peloton already. In front, Boonen runs out of fuel and Brajkovic goes for victory on his own.
Less than 5 kilometres to go and Mathias Frank has gone past everyone and cruising to victory. He has 1’ 02’’ on Brajkovic, 1’ 12’’ on Boonen and Hushovd (who jumped from the peloton) and 2 minutes on the pack.
Mathias Frank wins in Bad Zurach! He launched a very strong attack on the last meters of the climb and went all the way to the end very strong. BMC has bagged its second stage win at Switzerland.
Hushovd was the only one of the men behind that was able to end ahead of the pack. He crossed the line 1’ 11’’ behind Frank. The peloton, led by Basso, was 1’ 33’’ behind.
This was a quiet day for the general classification men, apart from those fighting for the mountain points. We did have a change of green jersey, Cancellara regaining it from Gesink.
There is another mountain top finish on today’s stage. However, the remainder of the stage is really easy, with only two small climbs at the end. The first one is very gentle, but the second has good gradients. However, the climb is so short that the differences among the favourites shouldn’t be big.
The break of the day was made of four riders today: Mikel Nieve (Omega), Gregory Rast (Radioshack), Tony Martin (HTC) and Michele Scarponi (Lampre). With 155 km to the finish they already had 7 minutes on the pack. The difference kept growing until the peloton began working around 100 km to go, it was 12’ 15’’ by then.
The group in front managed to get to the foot of the first climb almost 6 minutes ahead of the peloton. As the climbs are not really tough, they have a very good chance of winning the stage.
Tony Martin tried to go on his own while climbing Le Day. He managed to open a gap of around 30 seconds on the group, where Scarponi was suffering to keep up with the pace.
Rast and Nieve began to close the gap by the end of the climb, while Scarponi continued struggling. Martin was 12 seconds ahead of the trio on the top, with the peloton 4’ 30’’ back. Martin’s adventure would end on the small descent between the two climbs, so the four men in front would fight for victory at Juraparc.
3 kilometres to go and Nieve goes on his own. He didn’t even have to launch an attack, so he looks much stronger than the others in the break. He is soon able to open a 25 seconds gap, while the pack is 2’ 55’’ back. The Spaniard looks set for the stage win.
Gerald Ciolek was the first to move in the peloton. As he was nowhere near the top of the GC, it didn’t cause any major reaction on the group.
Mikel Nieve wins in Juraparc! He was by far the strongest of the break group in the last climb and ends 36 seconds ahead of the other three in the break.
Meanwhile, the main group has slightly more than 1 km to go. Ciolek is 16 seconds ahead of Daniel Martin and Robert Gesink. Another small group is 34 seconds behind the German. Gesink is 9th in the GC and could be a threat, although he is 4 minutes back. Franck Schleck is sitting in the peloton, as he doesn’t seem to have the legs today.
At the finish, Ciolek, Gesink, Martin and Franck arrive with small differences between them and more than two minutes down on Nieve. A small group including Van Leijen, Farrar and Tondo arrives with 2’ 51’’ lost and the peloton loses 3’ 16’’.
Not many changes on the top 10 of the GC. Gesink moves up to 7th overall and Scarponi climbs to 10th. It was worrying for Franck Schleck that he was unable to follow the moves of those behind him, but the same can be said for Sorensen or Mondory. Tomorrow there is a much tougher mountain top finish, where the likes of Gesink could give it a go and tryto reduce the time lost.
Today's stage is very similar to yesterday's, but the last climb is a bit more difficult. The riders have to climb Botyre before facing the last climb to Crans Montana. It should be a good ground where to test Franck Scheck's legs.
The break of the day took a long time to take shape. In the end, Marco Pinotti (HTC), Grega Bole (Lampre) and Chris Horner (Radioshack) made it in front. They had a maximum advantage of 7' 50'' before Leopard started to work in front of the peloton.
The peloton didn't look interested in catching the break, as no rider was a threat in the GC. The gap was reduced to 3' 50'' when the climb started, so the break had all chances to succeed.
6 kilometres to go and Chris Horner leaves Bole and Pinotti. He has 18 seconds on the group and 1' 55'' on the peloton. Meanwhile, no rider seems to be willing to attack in the group.
Chris Horner wins in Crans Montana! The Radioshack rider showed much more strength than the others in the break. This is the first win for Radioshack since Tiago Machado won the last stage of the Paris – Nice.
The group arrived 1' 36'' after Horner, led by Kennaugh. It was rather strange that no rider tried a move on the last kilometres of the stage. Most of them were probably keeping the strength for tomorrow's long time trial.
Franck Schleck didn't even have to defend his leader's jersey on the climb to Crans Montana. He looks set to bag to overall win, as it will be very hard for anyone to win 1' 30'' on him. After today's stage, Xavi Tondo secured the KoM jersey, as the mountain top finish gave the last points in that classification.
YvesStevens wrote:
What kind of expirience do you get when playing the game, when every cyclist has the same stats?
It is kind of strange. For example, any rider that is ahead on the overall results gets the lead role for the team automatically, what makes sense as everyone has the same stats. Looks like the game doesn't look what's the fitness of the riders (or maybe the random difference is not that big, it is between 87-93 for every rider).
Another feature is that it is so difficult for the teams to control the breakaways. Whenever a stage is not flat, the team that tries to hunt "burns" their domestiques very fast.
I will keep posting my feelings on the game as I notice some more things. It will be good to see the long TT, as it's the first I'm running in this story.
The last stage in Switzerland is a rather flat time trial. The most interesting fight in the stage will be the one for the second place, where Sorensen, Mondory, Farrar and VanLeijen are only 10 seconds apart.
The early pace setter was Alexandre Vinokourov, the Kazakh set a time of 40' 21'' at the second intermediate point and 59' 03'' at the finish.
Very close behind Vinokourov came Alessandro Ballan. He improved the second intermediate time by 2 seconds, but when he got to the finish he was 2 seconds slower than the Garmin rider.
Vinokourov kept the lead for a long time, but eventually his time was improved by Lars Ytting Bak. The Dane set a new best time of 58' 57''.
Bak's joy didn't last long, as Borut Bozic (Sky) came very strong and improved the time time in 2 seconds.
Xavi Tondo, in the mountain jersey, didn't have a threat ahead or behind in the overall classification. He cruised through the time trial to end 36th, 42 seconds behind Bozic.
Joost Van Leijen had a good chance to improve his position, but he had a bad time trial finishing 52nd, 51 seconds behind Bozic.
Tyler Farrar was 9 seconds faster than the Lampre rider, finishing with the same time as Xavi Tondo. He had secured at least the 4th overall.
Chris Anker Sorensen had a miserable time trial. When he got to the finish he was 60th, 56 seconds behind Bozic. That meant he lost the position in the GC to Tyler Farrar.
Lloyd Mondory did very well in Bern. The Liquigas rider was the best of the favourites so far. He was 18th at the finish line, 24 seconds from the first place. He kept the second place overall from the attacks of Sorensen, Van Leijen and Farrar.
Franck Schelck's lead never seemed in danger, as the riders behind weren't doing a great time trial. He could well have celebrated during the last kilometres of the stage. He was 33rd in the stage. Schleck's earnt most of his advantage after a great climb towards Serfaus and allowed him to take it easy for the rest of the Tour de Suisse.
Lloyd Mondory had another good stage race, after being 3rd in Paris – Nice he ends now 2nd at Switzerland. That allows him to move up in the UCI World Tour rankings. Schleck has moved to 6th in the rankings, while Farrar moves up to 8th.
Interesting to see such gaps with the exact same stat sets... I guess it's a case of recovery, how hard they've pushed themselves, and whether they've been designated a protected rider or not... I wonder how big the gaps would be if it was a 1 off ITT though.
Interesting to see such gaps with the exact same stat sets... I guess it's a case of recovery, how hard they've pushed themselves, and whether they've been designated a protected rider or not... I wonder how big the gaps would be if it was a 1 off ITT though.
Yes, it has to do a lot with what they did in the race. I've just run the Tour de France prologue (16 km) and the difference from first to last was only 13 seconds. The report will come tomorrow.
The Tour de France, the most famous race in the world, takes place in the month of July. The riders have enjoyed a three week rest before facing the toughest race of the season. The race starts with a rather long and difficult prologue in Monaco, and 3 days later the interesting TTT takes place in Montpellier. The mountain is pretty much spread through the three weeks of racing, as the first mountain stage takes place in day 7, with the climb to Arcalis. However, the most decisive stages will take place towards the end of the race: the stage of Le Grand Bornard, the Annecy ITT and the Mont Ventoux.
This year’s prologue will be longer and harder than usually. It takes place in the Principality of Monaco, starting and ending at the F1 track. 16 kilometres will make the differences between the riders bigger than the usual prologues we have seen this season.
Samuel Sanchez (Saxo Bank) was the first to set a reference time. The Spaniard completed the course in 24’ 25’’.
Franck Schleck brought his good form from Switzerland and was only 1 second slower than Samuel Sanchez. He was second when half the riders had made it to the finish.
Marco Pinotti (HTC) was the man who could beat Sanchez’s time. The Italian hasn’t done much this season, but had a strong start in France as he was 2 seconds faster than Samuel Sanchez.
Pinotti was set to wear in yellow when Alessandro Ballan came marginally faster to bag the stage victory and the yellow jersey. This is the first stage win for Ballan since the season started.
The second stage in the Tour de France is very easy. It only has three small climbs at the start, but afterwards the terrain is not very tough. The outcome will probably be a mass spirnt.
The break of the day took shape while climbing La Turbie. It included Peter Kennaugh (Sky), Andres Kloden (Radioshack), Michael Matthews (BMC), Mikel Nieve (Omega) and Cameron Meyer (Garmin). It was strange to see Kloden in the break, as he is third overall. The Radioshack rider will wear the first KoM jersey tomorrow.
The maximum difference for the break was 8’ 20’’. However, with Matthews not very keen on helping they had not many chances to make it to the finish. On the second sprint (47 km to go) the difference had reduced to only 2’ 10’’.
Liquigas was in control of the peloton while we approached the finish line. The breakaway was caught and no other rider tried a move, so a mass sprint it would be.
Purito wins in Brignoles! The Lampre rider was the fastest ahead of the fellow Spaniards Freire and Contador. It seems that the first days in France are rewarding riders that had done nothing throughout the season.
The loser of the day was Andreas Kloden, as he was dropped from the peloton and arrived 3 minutes behind the pack. At least he got to the podium as King of the Mountains.
The only risk of stage 3 is the wind in the last part of the stage. However, with a team time trial tomorrow, it’s difficult to think that there will be many teams willing to risk the extra fatigue. The most probable outcome is a mass sprint again.
The break of the day took almost no time to be set up, with Hushovd, Gilbert, Bozic and Cavendish in it. They had a maximum gap of 7’ 20’’ on the pack, but their chances of making it to the finish always were very slim. Hushovd got the biggest prize, as he will wear the King of the Mountains jersey tomorrow.
The break was caught long before the finish, because there were a couple of teams willing to rise the tempo of the peloton, especially Liquigas and Saxo Bank. There were a couple of times when the pack threatened to break, but it didn’t happen in the end.
The peloton was one big mess with 4 kilometres to go, every man was on his own. The points leader, Joaquim Rodriguez was well positioned to try to snatch some more points.
Jakob Fugslang wins in La Grande Motte! The Leopard rider came from behind to overtake his teammate Nizzolo and Chris Horner. Chris Anker Sorensen was gaining ground on the last meters but came half a bicycle short.
The bad news of the day was the abandon of Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre). The Italian was involved in a fall and suffered a fractured thigh. This is really bad news, as Petacchi sits 62nd on the World Tour rankings and will only be able to improve in the World Campionships and the Giro di Lombardia. The abandon also undermines his possibilities of being selected for the Italian team at the World Championship, considering Italy has to discard four riders.
Alessandro Ballan had a quiet day, but the BMC team did a big effort bringing back the breaks yesterday and tomorrow, we will have to see how fatigued their riders are for tomorrows team TT.
The team time trial is a classic in the Tour de France. It breaks the otherwise flattish first week of racing and sets the first differences in the overall results. Lampre starts with the deficit of being left with one less rider, after Petacchi abandoned yesterday.
Sky was the first team to hit the track and looked quick from the start. They were in the first positions of the intermediate points and ended with a time of 53’ 11’’.
Omega came right behind Sky. They were marginally slower through the second intermediate point, but ended the TTT stronger than the British. Their time was 1 second better.
Garmin was another team doing well. However, they lost time in the last part of the race and ended 3 seconds behind Omega.
Leopard was the only one of the teams still on the track threatening Omega’s lead. They were matching the intermediate times but when they crossed the line, Leopard was only second. They were 1 second too late, tied with Sky.
BMC came last and they were a big disappointment. They never had the legs to challenge the top spots and Ballan soon realised he wouldn’t be wearing the yellow jersey any longer. They made it to the finish 29 seconds slower than Omega-Pharma Lotto.
The new leader of the race is Franck Schleck, with two of his teammates following 1 second behind: Peraud and Rojas. We have seen how the fatigue of trying to control the peloton has destroyed the BMC team; it could be not the smartest idea to take the yellow jersey too early with teams so weak.
